Chapter 27
Those who reached the 9th tier could unleash fleet-level firepower on their own.
Even I was like that. If I drew out all my strength, I could unleash an attack comparable to, or even slightly stronger than, a dreadnought’s broadside.
Considering the power of a battleship, that kind of firepower from the human body was truly astounding.
And the best way to suppress an opponent capable of fleet-level firepower was one thing.
"Bring in a fleet."
As soon as I finished speaking, Charles, who had been charging toward me, flinched.
The ‘intuition’ possessed only by outstanding knights.
An instinct that could not be explained in words stopped his body.
"Still, your instincts are pretty sharp."
As soon as I finished speaking, the plain was swallowed by an explosion.
KWA-GWAGWAGWANG-!
It took less than 0.1 seconds for the naval gun shells fired from 8 km away to turn the plain before Porvin Fortress into scorched earth.
The ground turned over and heaven and earth shook. In an instant, everything before my eyes went black.
It was a strike that would have killed an ordinary knight in one hit.
But I never thought Charles would die that easily.
With a light gesture, the Guards lined up behind me moved.
Armed with heavy machine guns that could only be used mounted on vehicles or fixed positions, they advanced, scattering overwhelming sheets of fire into the blast-swept haze.
The 76mm anti-aircraft gun unit was not idle either.
"Fire!"
At the battery commander’s order, the twenty anti-aircraft guns lined up in a row all belched flame at once.
It was about five minutes later that the barrage finally died down.
When I lifted my right hand slightly, all firing ceased.
"The visibility’s a bit bad."
I waved my hand lightly, and a wind from somewhere swept away the acrid smoke.
By then, the hundreds of soldiers who had followed Charles were gone without a trace.
What replaced them was a massive crater.
A jagged scar created by the shells that had fallen onto the plain.
And at the center of it.
There stood Charles Raymonz, who had used all the aura he could muster to block every attack.
"Magic and aura really are amazing, aren’t they."
That was half sincere.
Charles Raymonz’s personality and character were both rotten, but as a knight, his aptitude was indeed exceptional.
He was, after all, still standing more or less fine even after taking a direct hit from a battleship bombardment.
"So it really is different once you reach the 9th tier."
"Kuh...!"
Of course, looking fine didn’t mean he was actually fine inside.
Planting his lance in the ground, he spat blood and said in a resentful voice,
"You... coward..."
"Hmm?"
"And you call yourself the Southern Grand Duke, c-cough, and you don’t even know what honor is...?"
It sounded awfully wronged, if you only listened to the words.
If you ignored the fact that he had built a fortress on the only land route between Sarsen and Lutetia, lured me into a meeting, ambushed me, and even carried out a night raid.
"And yet you dare attack from afar when I, personally, have come here..."
"I think the coward here is you."
"Coward?"
Honestly, having lived into the 21st century, I didn’t really understand the kind of ‘honor’ he was talking about.
Modern warfare is an all-out contest of national power.
In other words, the side with better equipment, better-trained troops, and more intelligence assets wins.
In that sense, the one who seemed more cowardly to me was Charles Raymonz.
He was the one who had left the corrupt nobles alone, let the entrenched interests ruin the West, and yet went around fighting wars outside like it was his personal hobby.
Even after making the worst possible choice and cornering himself.
If he came all the way to the end and still said, ‘Let’s settle this honorably with a one-on-one duel,’ then no matter how you looked at it, that was just a pathetic last-ditch struggle.
"While I took control of the South Grand Duke title in name only, rooted out corruption, and restored the South to normal, what were you doing?"
"..."
"Do you really think it’s fair to call me cowardly for coming here after diligently laying the groundwork for ten years and finishing all my preparations, when you did nothing?"
Isn’t it far more cowardly to argue that someone who spent ten years lounging around should fight on equal terms with someone who spent ten years working?
Charles Raymonz ultimately failed to refute those words.
"Ghk...!"
Once again, the bastard forced himself to stand.
In response, I too dismounted and stepped forward.
As I threw off both gloves, the released magic power hummed around me.
It was a different kind of pressure from the oppression of naval gunfire.
"The one who’s cowardly is this Empire."
Clap-
When I gave a light clap, blue particles of magic gathered overhead.
In an instant, five massive sword forms were created.
"Corrupt nobles who can’t change with the times. Mages who can’t accept the changing era and struggle to cling to power."
"And vermin like you who cling to an Empire like that."
The weakest moment for a mage is when casting magic.
Charles, an exceptional warrior, knew that fact better than anyone.
He tried to grip his lance and charge without hesitation.
KWAANG-!
At that moment, the 76mm anti-aircraft guns all at once began hammering at his aura shield.
"Kugh...!"
"There’s no need for vermin like you in the world I’m going to build."
[ Maximum Acceleration of the Magic Sword ]
Kiiiing-!
Blue rings spread around the swords floating in midair.
[ Coordinate Lock ]
Then, at a speed the eye couldn’t follow, they came crashing down.
Charles was too busy blocking the 76mm shells to have any room left to stop the giant swords descending on him.
KWA-GWAGWAGWANG-!
A burst of blue light engulfed Charles’s body.
When all the light particles disappeared, Charles Raymonz’s red aura was no longer visible.
Five blue greatswords were embedded in Charles’s kneeling body.
The greatswords, which had been as large as buildings, had been reduced to the size of ordinary swords in order to pin his body in place.
"Kkgh, kkeuk..."
"Don’t worry. I’m not going to kill you."
I walked over while speaking in a cold voice.
"It’s a spell that immobilizes your body. No matter how strong I am, it isn’t easy to utterly cripple a 9th-tier aura user in one shot."
A normal death was far too merciful compared to what Charles Raymonz had done.
Building a fortress in Sarsen.
Intercepting two surprise attacks.
And the citizens of our South dying in those surprise attacks.
Compared to the karma he’d earned, a simple death was too easy.
"So first, I’ll break your aura core."
Uuuung-
My right hand turned blue.
Only then did he seem to realize what I was about to do, but it was already too late.
Fwoosh-
My hand, half transformed into particles, pierced into the area around his lower abdomen.
Inside his body, I could feel an irregularly shaped crystal.
That was the aura core.
The organ that gathered aura in the body through the aura breathing method, then circulated that gathered aura throughout the entire body.
When I gripped my hand tightly, I could feel cracks spreading through the crystal.
"Kkgh, kkeugheuk... kkeuk...!"
"Don’t worry. It’ll be over soon."
The moment those words ended, the aura core caught in my hand was literally shattered.
When I pulled my hand back out, a gemstone crystal resembling a ruby remained in my palm.
I drew up my magic power and completely melted the gemstone crystal, then looked back at Charles.
"Passed out, huh."
Once I dismissed all the magic swords embedded in his body, he collapsed onto the floor like a puppet with its strings cut.
For a knight who had reached the 9th tier, and the Western Grand Duke at that, it was a rather pitiful end.
Of course, I had no intention of ending it there.
Crushing his aura core was merely a measure to make capturing him easier.
"Call the Guard’s field medics."
As we marched toward the West, I had thought about it.
What kind of end would be the most miserable for Charles Raymonz.
And I had reached one conclusion.
To take everything he had.
Right now, Charles Raymonz had lost the West and even his aura; all that remained to him was Aria.
And how do you make a romance-fantasy male lead get abandoned by Aria?
The answer was simple.
"Bite down and endure it. This is going to hurt a bit."
A blue magic circle appeared on my wrist, and Charles Raymonz’s mind snapped awake.
The moment it did, I summoned a magic sword into my hand and swung it.
"Guuuuugh!?"
Sshhk-!
The sharp slash severed the tendons in his arm.
He started writhing in pain and looked like he might faint, so I used magic again to force him back to his senses.
And without giving him a moment to breathe, I cut the tendons in his legs.
"Kraaagh!?"
By then, Charles Raymonz seemed to have caught on to what I was planning.
"I-I’m sorry... nghk, I’m sorry... I—"
He was begging frantically, trying to move one unmoving arm.
Of course, it was already far too late.
"If you wanted to apologize, you should’ve done it sooner."
Right after the Albion air raid. Right after the surprise attack on Sarsen Harbor. And before the Sarsen Fortress incident ever happened.
There had clearly been plenty of chances.
The one who kicked those chances away was Charles Raymonz himself.
Two more consecutive blue slashes severed the tendons in his remaining arms and legs.
Then the Guards who had stepped back came forward.
"Make sure this one can’t regenerate the tendons in his limbs, then send him to the imperial capital."
The unconscious Charles was dragged away somewhere by the Guards.
"The remaining army will advance into the capital."
Given that Charles Raymonz had only managed to bring out a force of a few hundred men, the capital was surely already half empty.
All that remained now was to occupy the capital, garrison our troops there, and establish a puppet government.
The full-scale annexation would begin only after the puppet government was settled and public sentiment stabilized. After we laid railroads and factories, and after the West had been assimilated to a certain degree.
And so the Southern Army crossed the gates of Porvin without any resistance at all.
And a few days later.
The news of the fall of Porvin, the Western capital, reached the imperial center as well.
At once, the center was thrown into chaos.